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Breathing Exercises to Help Children
to be Calm and Focus

Children start developing many new emotions from an early developmental age (2-5). 

These may include strong emotions like embarrassment, guilt, excitement, frustration, anger, and shame. Strong emotions like these may sometimes be overwhelming for children to manage and understand, especially because they may not know how to express how they feel vocally.

Children need help.

Children need help to calm down from these strong emotions as they:

  • May not always have the right words to communicate strong emotions (especially toddlers and preschoolers).
  • They are still at the developmental stages of all their skills, including emotional skills and managing strong emotions. 
  • May react more strongly to things because of their evolving temperaments.
  • Can find it hard to manage emotions, hunger, and stress.

Helping children calm down

A few steps to help your child calm down from a strong emotion:

  • First, Identify the emotion.
  • Name and connect the emotion.
  • Address the issue creating the emotion.
  • Support the child while they calm down.

Helping children stay focused

In children, concentration and focus require regular exercise to strengthen. Some children have innate focus skills and abilities. However, all kids can learn strategies and engage in practices that help improve their ability to focus and sustain their attention.

Tips to help children stay more focused: 

  • Create a reasonable amount of time to practice focusing on a specific task.
  • Create a workspace and time for homework.
  • Help them focus on doing one thing at a time.
  • Practice concentration and observation
  • Set aside planned break times.
  • Practice breathing exercises.

Breathing exercises for kids

Breathing exercises can help children throughout the day.

How can breathing exercises help children and teens?

Breathing exercises can help children and teens;

  • When it’s time to sleep or relax,
  • When they feel overwhelmed or anxious  
  • When they need to pause and reset after exerting high energy. 
  • To calm their body after a physical exercise or just a regular meditative exercise.
  • To refocus the mind and reduce stress or anxiety. 
  • To lower heart rate and balance the mind.
  • To create a calming effect by increasing the body’s oxygen levels.

Types of Breathing exercises for kids

Taking deep breaths can calm a person mentally and physically. Deep breathing techniques redirect the mind to a simple task, distracting from anxious thoughts. In addition, it activates the parasympathetic nervous system (the part of the nervous system that controls stress reactions).

Various types of breathing exercises can help kids indulge in deep, intentional breaths.

Examples of breathing exercises for Kids

Exercise

Purpose

Deep Breath Exercise 

For Calming

Dragon Breaths 

To Release Tension

Taco Breath 

To Cool Down

Partner Breaths

Fosters Teamwork And Communication

Rising Breathing Buddies

To wind down and connect with their breath.

Other exercises include feather breathing, balloon breathing, bubble breathing, or counting breaths.

Tips on practicing breathing exercises for kids

Start when they are young:

Deep breathing is a valuable tool for children of all ages. Parents can, however, start by teaching toddlers how to slow down their breaths when they feel upset or angry. To help them understand the importance of calm even as they develop, mentally and physically.  

Adapt to what works best for each child:

Parents should observe and identify which exercise works best for their child, especially when teaching and practicing breathing exercises. There are various ways to practice breathing exercises. 

Practice when the child is calm:

One of the most important things to keep in mind when practicing breathing exercises is to do so when the child is calm. By practicing when a child feels good, they will be equipped to use this tool in moments of stress or anxiety.

Use counting to help them stay focused:

While practicing breathing exercises, encourage the child to count to three when inhaling, take a slight pause, and then exhale for a count of four.

The length of the exhale and inhale is not as important as slowing their breathing and focusing their attention on the exercise. A child’s breathing ability or length of counts may differ by age.

From an early developmental stage, regular mindful breathing practice teaches emotional awareness and introspection. It also strengthens social interaction and emotional intelligence and helps children become compassionate, strong, and healthy.

About us.

Rural opportunity institute developed breathing cards featuring these exercises, with illustrative guides that help you maximize healthy living. 

To find out more about our breathing cards, visit: Breathing Cards

Please share these tools & practices with others! 

ROI invests in trauma-informed and resilient communities.

We support people’s healing process by educating, reshaping systemic practices, and fostering deep-rooted connections.

For more educational articles and content, visit Rural Opportunity Institute’s Resource Hub.

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